Superheros also just preach that you have to maintain the status quo, never tackle the root of the problem, just violently attack the symptoms and that only a small few special people can save you, so everybody else just has to get out of the way and cheer.
Disney sells us imaginary heroes while supporting real world villains.
Submitted 23 hours ago by deddit@lemmy.world to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Comments
WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 20 hours ago
MummysLittleBloodSlut@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 hours ago
Iron Man is about Iron Man realising that selling weapons is bad
WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 13 hours ago
Also saying you need to be a rich prick to get anything done
drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
And then giving an unbelievably hangout weapons system to some kid as a gift.
themurphy@lemmy.ml 19 hours ago
While this is a good narrative to make about Disney if we want to hate on them, it’s not true though.
The Disney movies for kids is almost all about not maintaining status quo and actually challenge it. Or being different than anyone else
Frozen and Moana are recent examples. Pirates of Caribbean for an older audience. There’s many more.
WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 19 hours ago
Disney kids movies aren’t about super heroes usually. But even Lion King is how you can’t escape adult responsibilities and have to continue the cycle.
Black616Angel@discuss.tchncs.de 12 hours ago
Yeah, like Mulan showing that girls can also fight or Merida showing that girls have an opinion of their own.
No more like Mike Wazowski showing all Monsters that laughing is better than screaming. Or Lilo befriending an alien weapon. Or Captain Jack Sparr-oh…
Remember, we are talking about Disney heroes and A LOT of them question the status quo (not all, but a lot).
dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 hours ago
V for Vendetta
Atomic@sh.itjust.works 15 hours ago
You’re talking about Disney movies. Intended for children. They’re not gonna go shoot someone in the head because they’re responsible for denied health insurance.
Why are you expecting kids movies to be an accurate intricate commentary of society in the first place?
It’s movies, for kids. Most people grow out of that. But some keep being obsessed with “superheroes”
MummysLittleBloodSlut@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 hours ago
I like Black Adam, he kills colonisers
WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 13 hours ago
Why are you expecting kids movies to be an accurate intricate commentary of society in the first place?
Because what kids watch will influence their sense of morality
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 hours ago
That sounds like the villains’ motive in My Hero Academia. A good series about superheroes, and what it means to be a hero. And what it means for those who aren’t qualified to work as heroes but do, or try to do heroic things (the fourth season addresses this, as will the upcoming final season (it was in the manga, which is complete), and the Vigilantes spinoff directly covers it.
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
Basically ever mainstream media is “We can’t kill the villain”
opens history book
LMAO
ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 4 hours ago
This is why I loved the scene in F is for Family when Frank responds to the ‘be the bigger and better person and let go’ by straight up punching and knocking his abusive elderly dad after meeting up with him instead of burying the trauma further.
drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
People are looking for a left wing Rogan. But I think we have that with guys like Bur
Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 4 hours ago
Kolanaki@pawb.social 4 hours ago
Bill Burr shot first!
drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Wakanda is a monarchist enthnostate that tortures outsiders and even shows outright hostility to those helping them. Their leadership is determined by the most violent among them. And this society is presented a utopia.
I fucking hate these movies.
CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I tried watching the animated show recently, and its basically Wakanda throughout history stealing vibranium from other civilisations because they feel entitled to complete control over the element, usually with large amounts of colateral damage and theft of deeply important cultural artifacts in the process. I assume there’s some alegory I’m missing but they just come off as assholes.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
The country is threatened by a villainous black liberation agitator and saved with the help of the CIA.
They might as well have had Abdel Fattah El-Sisi play the lead role.
M0oP0o@mander.xyz 12 hours ago
Well the funny part is that most of the “heroes” they sell are not really heroes, just defenders of a status quo america that never really existed
baltakatei@sopuli.xyz 10 hours ago
See also: “Marvel Defenders of The Status Quo” (2022-06-22) by Pop Culture Detective.
drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Zemo did nothing wrong.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 13 hours ago
It reminds me of a meme I recently saw of a preacher in front of a bunch of Indians, and he says “Before we came, you worshipped the SUN!”
And one of the Indians says “Dude, the sun is real.”
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 10 hours ago
He has a point. It’s ironic that the only piece of “evidence” most religions have is a book written by humans.
Any belief in the sun/moon/stars/whatever… At least you can point and say, there it is.
But Christianity is normal and not crazy at all, and believing in Ra is the crazy thing… Sure. Yeah.
I think it’s all nuts. But whatever.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
the only piece of “evidence” most religions have is a book written by humans.
Evangelism typically involves more than just a book. There’s inevitably some amount of mysticism - faith healing, weather events that turn the tide of a pitched battle, communing with the dead, miraculous survival stories, straight up stage magic.
Any belief in the sun/moon/stars/whatever… At least you can point and say, there it is.
There’s inevitably some kind of reverse causation in these faiths. Humans are constantly asserting they can manipulate the heavens with ritual and sacrifice.
minorkeys@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
They treat us like the naive children we behave like.
limer@lemmy.ml 15 hours ago
I have been thinking the superhero movies were having many fascist themes themselves. And their popularity was helped by a growing authoritarian movement in the USA.
The actual comics do not have many of the above issues, the movies reinforced certain themes.
I say this as someone who likes the comic books
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
I pissed off a lot of, supposedly left leaning, comic book fans when I told them I thought Tony Stark had a good point that the super heroes in the MCU needed to be regulated. They were doing too much investigating and acting on their own without any oversight to not make people nervous. Same with Justice League Unlimited.
At least with Superman(2025), the hero’s intervention in world affairs was just a scaled up Bystander Effect.
limer@lemmy.ml 11 hours ago
I was thinking something else, like
The Boys Showrunner, Eric Kripke, says the superhero ultimately exists to protect the status quo, to keep things as they are or once were during more nostalgic times, while the supervillain seeks change. A superhero is pro-establishment, working to uphold the system, and viewers can be trained to believe some exceptional being will fix everything.
The earlier superhero movies made in the USA helped support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there were strategies and meetings to deliberately do just that.
I think the later Marvel movies drifted away from typecasting the villains and made the plots less American centric. But it did not loose the parallels to the popular movies in Germany made in the late 30’s.
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Yeah it’s not great the way supers tend to validate vigilantism. Ultimately you can have rule of law or some form of tyranny. There are middle grounds, but those are the options. Also the hero’s journey literary paradigm has regressive aspects. 🤓
MummysLittleBloodSlut@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 hours ago
I like the comic where Batman beats up a racist cop
Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 4 hours ago
“Rule of Law” is itself a form of tyranny. It is nothing more than the dictates of a hierarchical authority trying to assert its control over others. It is a fundamentally oppressive system that can and has repeatedly throughout history been used to facilitate the oppression of marginalized peoples.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 13 hours ago
superhero movies were having many fascist themes themselves.
you can have rule of law or some form of tyranny
Yeah like that one!
utopiah@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Check
Teaching with Disney edited by Julie C. Garlen and Jennifer A. Sandlin, 2016 (including but not limited to “Teaching Disney Critically in the Age of Perpetual Consumption”)
and
The Mouse that Roared, Disney and the End of Innocence by Henry A. Giroux and Grace Pollock, 2010
but the Tl;DR is that their only definition of “heroes” is whatever might sell anything and aligned with the ideology of a “founder” that arguably didn’t draw the mouse itself.
ronigami@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Maybe that’s why all their stories suck, completely unfounded in reality
Kolanaki@pawb.social 4 hours ago
thinking of all the movies where good triumphs over evil
You’re right. Evil usually wins IRL.
Tattorack@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
I mean… Yeah? It has never been any different.
Bennyboybumberchums@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Grace Kelly said something similar years ago: “Hollywood amuses me. Holier-than-thou for the public and unholier-than-the-devil in reality.”. We have all known this for decades. The sleazy hollywood rapist was a thing long before Harvey was outed. They all knew, and yet they all kept their mouths shut.
This is why its always been so perplexing to me that so much of society looks to hollywood for its morality lessons.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 hours ago
TBH their “heroes” are pretty fascist too. Princes, princesses, etc. It’s a total shitshow in terms of class.
drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
And the ones who are not are almost all solders and cops. With two exceptions that I can think of, Spiderman who might as well be rich do to his friendships and connections and antman who they treated like shit.
OberonSwanson@sh.itjust.works 22 hours ago
Well, yeah, this is like saying Santa Claus isn’t real lol
Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 hours ago
Does Santa Clus support genocides?
RustyShackleford@lemmy.zip 22 hours ago
Since Santa isn’t real, I would say the answer is a definitive, no.
WindyRebel@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Not to my knowledge, but that fucker, the Easter Bunny, Leprechauns, and Tooth Fairy all support/practice breaking and entering!
WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
No, just slavery.
m3t00@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
after micky mouse they went downhill. didn’t like the mm club as a kid.
dan1101@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
But Disney has also been tearing down the imaginary heroes with movies like Captain America Civil War and The Last Jedi.
Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 hours ago
Why did you do it stan?
“The money, of couse.”
mariusafa@lemmy.sdf.org 11 hours ago
Someone post the astronaut meme
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
🌎 👨🚀 🔫 👩🚀
fartographer@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Y’all see the latest Captain America movie? The one where the whole moral was “maybe we can still appeal to their better nature?”
kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 hours ago
You still watching that crap?
fartographer@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Yargh, matey. I do be watching whatever the fuck I want.
betanumerus@lemmy.ca 12 hours ago
I’ve mostly avoided Disney since Ron De Santi tried to ban words “change” and “climate”.
Hegar@fedia.io 21 hours ago
”Roger Meyers, Sr., the gentle genius behind Itchy & Scratchy loved and cared about almost all the peoples of the world”
titanicx@lemmy.zip 12 hours ago
#corporatelife
TheBat@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Tuuktuuk@piefed.ee 21 hours ago
It is any better.
It's also not okay what DC did, but the transgressions are very different in scale.
Kimmel was faired for saying "MAGA is trying to make it look like the shooter wasn't a MAGA activist", while Felker-Martin got fired for saying "it's a good thing Kirk can no longer take part in podcasts."
I don't think either of those is grounds for firing, but it's not good to bring them to the same level.
kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 hours ago
Ok fanboy
WhatGodIsMadeOf@feddit.org 16 hours ago
It’s not just Disney… I’m pretty sure all these 1st world nations do the same. We’ve been used and manipulated and suckered into complacency from their offerings.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 hours ago
Now look at who’s running Nintendo (of America). Guy named Bowser. That will never not be funny. (Coincidentally, a guy who hacked one of their consoles and is now essentially a wage slave to them, forced to give up like half his paycheck to them, is also named Bowser.)
Disney and Nintendo are both widely loved companies that have done some very bad things for the world. Maybe the true villains. But, like anything and anyone else, it’s shades of grey, neither of them are completely diabolically evil.
rikudou@lemmings.world 17 hours ago
neither of them are completely diabolically evil
You sure? I don’t see any redeeming qualities in Disney nor Nintendo.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 hours ago
The happiness they bring children counts for something.
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 hours ago
As always, companies aren’t people, they are comprised of people. Not all of these people are diabolically evil. And even then, likely the people making the diabolically evil decisions have some streak in them that’s not diabolically evil.
For example, you can’t honestly say that none of the Disney movies had any positive effect on people. Same with stuff that Nintendo does.
Sure, overall the verdict is “diabolically evil”. But there are positives within the overwhelmingly negative.
InputZero@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Nintendo and Disney aren’t evil because they’re cooperations, not people. It’s the people who sit on top of Disney and Nintendo who are either diabolically evil or spineless cowards who want money and power but are too scared to use it for good. Either way, Nintendo and Disney “don’t serve the public interest”.
coffee_nutcase207@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Someone should make a parody of that. Like Disney makes a superhero called “Free School Lunch Man” while funding candidates who are against that idea.
NerdyKeith@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
They’ve been like that for a very long time.
RavenofDespair@lemmy.ml 17 hours ago
This just came out and shows this theme. It is awesome Knights of Guinevere: pilot youtu.be/MCAdbUaMlAE
beejboytyson@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Duh, that’s a point.
Hector@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Not for long, soon Disney heroes will be exposing the all-powerful wokestate and overthrowing it.
The woke State stopping supply-side economics that leads to Prosperity obviously.
merdaverse@lemmy.zip 11 hours ago
supply-side economics that leads to Prosperity
That sounds too fiction even for comic books
0ops@piefed.zip 2 hours ago
You know, that line makes me think they’re just trolling. There’s no way they’re serious
0ops@piefed.zip 13 hours ago
Lol you can’t just go around making up words
Hector@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
First of all I absolutely can and do makeup words as I see fit. What you can’t? That must be embarrassing for you. Second, I have no idea what you’re talking about.
skisnow@lemmy.ca 17 hours ago
JK Rowling wrote a whole book series about how bullying is a horrible and self-perpetuating cycle, and now spends most of her time bullying a marginalised group
JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social 10 hours ago
No, Joanne!
I.e., I understand she greatly prefers (absolutely detests) being addressed that way. :D
Hector@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
skisnow@lemmy.ca 16 hours ago
No.
Other people’s right to exist is not just “an opinion outside of the mainstream”.
Delete your post and don’t make anything like it again.
khaleer@sopuli.xyz 16 hours ago
Lol bro wtf
MummysLittleBloodSlut@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 hours ago
She’s bringing her opinions to parliament and using them to kill people
andros_rex@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
She’s literally been denying the Holocaust killed trans people. She funded a court case that made it so that were I live in the UK, it would be illegal for me to piss in any public restroom.
That’s like saying David Irving was “viciously attacked for having opinions out of the mainstream.”
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Her opinions are old school mainstream. She’s against the culture shift and if she existed decades ago, she’s be more opening racist rather then transphobic.
4am@lemmy.zip 12 hours ago
She is not defending herself. She is attacking. She is funding hate groups with money.
Fuck Joanne and her stupid wizard world. It’s all built on ideas of imperialism apologia anyway
shapis@lemmy.ml 10 hours ago
I’ve had a couple friends sprout bs like this.
What I’ve done with them is I ask them to check her twitter out with me. If more than 7 of her most recent 10 tweets at any time aren’t anti trans bs I’ll agree with them that she’s defending herself.
I’m gonna invite you to whenever you see this message go on her twitter and count. Then come back and tell me if she’s just defending herself or if she made it a huge part of her personality hating a minority.